Daily Ireland....Alas Goodbye. But why!!

A Balmy September Day, the cafe culture, the dog, the coffee and the Daily Ireland. I liked this....The history synopsis and quote for the day provided the reminder of times yor and the wisdom that it is nice to have.

It saddens me to hear of yet another Irish (home grown) paper going to the wall. Why?

Let us just remember: The Irish Press and writers like Con Houlihan, Freeman's Journal from Michael Davitt and Land League times.

I scare to the idea that tycons like Sir Anthony O'Reilly, and Murdoch monopolise the world market. Media is their market and they hold the major part of it.

I hope the Village magazine is not nudged out of the market. Writers like Vincent Browne, Emma Browne, Frank Connolly, Colin Murphy and other's are the eyes and ears that keep us focused on reality time Ireland; the corruption, the social injustice, the political assasinations that ensure checks and balances in line democracy principles and the Rule of Law are possible......

Daily Ireland, as far as I am concerned has great potential. I hope this is recognised and the necessary capital is injected to put it back in print in time for November 24th 2006.....when hopefully the shackles will be removed and all people will be prepared to 'Give Peace a Chance'.

Throughout Irish history, and back in each centuries, local newspaper with local news provided an integrity and a consolidation of identily. Daily Ireland received unfair negative support that was endorsed by accusations of certain Irish ministers as to its allegiance with IRA sources.

Who do we support now: What values apply; what politics predominates; who reports on the real issues that apply like health, injustice; evolution perrhaps.

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I wish to express my appreciation to Daily Ireland for its attention to those voices that do not get heard easily. For me, it carried several items on the plight of the Niger Delta and Rossport and was a voice for such small indigenous communities intimidaded by oil and gas exploration activities over many years. It took touble to get the stories and the photographs and to give attention and dignity to the community struggles of Africa in a way that emphasised the political as much as the humanitarian. It also underlined many positive actions of the Church particularly in South Africa in relation to Aids care. A space and a respect for actions that make for a more concerned sociey is needed in mainstream media.

Ah, poor Daily Provo has to close because the Brits would'nt advertise with them, I'f they hung on till next year when their masters are on the policing board they may have got a few ads telling nationalist to join the PSNI. Maybe they could have ran some ads for the GAA match between St. Bridgets and The PSNI match, the Brits may have even paid for them.

Closure has nothing to do with the fact that it is just a parrot for the Provos.

Ralist or should that be "elitest". The reality is most working class people read tabloids if anything at all. Stick to your capucino set. Make it a double expresso and wake up to youself.

The Daily Ireland was the only daily that reported on the anti-war movement in Ireland with any regularity and accuracy. It was great that they treat the whole island as Ireland. The liberal, authoritarian and libertarian left (and even indy to a cetain degree) in Ireland has a real problem with treating this small island as one. Sad to hear of its passing.

Bit of a nonsense Daily Provo being an All Ireland paper, when they actively support partition and regularly demand that their political masters be allowed to administer British rule in the North East,

The closure of Direland reflects the publics attitude to the anti-war groups - small, ignored, irrelivant and doomed to failure.
As soon as the trots got to lead the anti-war campaign, joe soap fucked off. We should sent the trots to Iraq and bore the people to death.

The Daily Ireland has closed because the UK government wouldn't permit advertising in a 'republican' newspaper. No surprise there. Not only that but being 'republican' and sympathetic to a liberal-left agenda, the Daily Ireland did not find a ready audience in the Republic of Ireland. I think it's failure stems from the fact that it was based in the north, an area where there is a long tradition of left-wing agitation and activity, and assumed the 26 counties were of a similar inclination. Well, they're not. The Republic is one of the most right-wing countries in Europe with practically no social agenda whatsoever, and it is no surprise that the people who live there did not take to a liberal-left tabloid.
Oh, well. Perhaps one day the Free Staters will begin to look out from their frigid island and see that there is a world going on around them, a world with problems they help create and perpetuate.
Cheerio Daily Ireland, you arrived too soon.

Mr. PMO
I am writing in response to your hilarious little snip about Daily Ireland. As a Galway man living in Dublin 4 with my partner Michelle, we bought the paper daily, enjoyed some and disagreed with some of its coverage.

We too are disappointed in relattion to its closure but your little snippet suggested that all us Free Staters are rigid or gombeens. For many years now, I have been travelling across the border during the Troubles and after.

One evening in the early 1990's, I was short a number of bricklayers, just outside Derry, for a building I was doing. I made enquiries and was given the name of a pub to go to (a Friday evening). I walked into a pub on the Derry side, asked the barman, and he pointed me over to table of 9 or 11 gentlemen. I had my say and the reply was absolutely beyond belief.

Reply
'You want a bricklayer, do you? I live with my girlfriend 3 nights a week. She lives on the Waterside of Derry and I live on the Derry side. She gets a free house from the Housing Executive, and so do I. (That is two houses we have). She gets her brew and then I get my brew. Between our 2 brews and my four days a week working in Derry, we accumumulate 600 stg. pounds per week. I turned around to leave.

He shouts - I forgot to tell you Galway man, we also rent out half of our respective houses to 4 Donegal men, who work on the building sites in Derry, again cash in hand rent. So what the f..... would I be doing working for you? He added 'with no offence'

Now Mr. PMO - on top of this he would have free health and dental treatment and now after all the years - Do you really want a united Ireland to and to forfeit all the luxuries?

I go further Mr. PMO - yee boys in the wee North have all got chips on your shoulders when lecturing us in the South about Britain. When we fought the Black the Tans and auxilaries down here, you were hiding under beds in the North afraid of Carson and Paisley's Grandpa (Wilbur).

Michael McDowell, new PD leader, is possibly right about Daily Ireland being a Provo paper. I am not saying we have proof of this but there is always a questionmark over it.

You mentioned our rigid society down here and our view on social issues. Yee people up there can't even get different parties to sit at the same table together. So now can you explain to me Mr. PMO what rigid really means?

Our economy is doing very well down South, with almost full employment. So the closure of Daily Ireland down here is not a National day of mourning. Unlike up in the wee North, we have more on our minds to think about like the upcoming Mayo Kerry final - Croke Park. As no doubt you will know Croke Park commerates certain Southern heroes and patriots of Irish Freedom.

I will close by saying that I regret the closure of Daily Ireland but the war is over and would all of you up there just get over it because some generation of people will not appreciate your closed mindsets of now.

I would love to see Mr. Paisley throw the ball in at Croagh Park and Jeffrery refereeing a hurling match in Cork, And at the same time I would like to see Gerry Kelly engaged to Rhonda Paisley with McGuinness as best man.

This would be diversity, Mr. PMO. Now i hope you get the comics of what I am saying this evening.

I have worked up there among you and you are a clannish lot of closed minded individuals. Seing your recommend to us that there is a big world out there, I recommend to you there is a big world out there.

Now that you have no Daily Ireland and we are all in tears North and South, I suggest you buy a book on King Billy. Then there is another...I suggest by Anthony Clare Psychiatrist titled Men in Crisis.
Otherwise I suggest Ireland's Own.

K.T. Walsh

Quotation:
John Hume Peace Price Laureate
'Diversity in Unity'

or Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)
'Disobediece is the trude foundation of freedom. The obedient must be slaves'
(Essayist, Poet, Naturalist')

The guy above is a liar. No Derry man pulling scams would mouth off in front of 9 or 11 boyos including a complete stranger, of the scams he's pulling.
Most claim poverty to avoid buying a round.
I have NEVER heard of Donegal builders renting in Derry. Unheard of. Unless they too are signing the bru in Derry, but even then they'd still live at home and just visit to collect mail and dole cheques.
It's a sexed up anecdote.

Derry Brickie....Get real. This was no sexed up anecdote but part of life in the fast lane, in trade and definitely in the construction industry....

A little psychology explain the roots of this.

'The Behaviour of the full human being is always unpredictable simply because it is free' Fr. John Powell, Jesuit in US.

Michelle

Now Kevin T.

Derry Brickie. Seeing that you are an avid reader of Daily Ireland and so was I therefore both of us share a deep sense of Irish history. However I am a bit dubious about yours. Can you give me a brief outline of the Plantation of Ulster = I will give you a brief start.

Queen Liz 1 and the two Chieftains of Ulster, O'Neill in Dungannon, and O'Donnell in Donegal. My questions to you:

What was that war called before the plantation?

Who did Hugh O'Neill marry at that time?

There was a famous battle at that time, it was called the Battle of the Yellow Ford, can you clarify for me?

Give me the name of the English Spy that came on a boat to Lough Swilly and kidnapped a young Red Hugh O'Donnell and bourght him to Dublin in chains?

Can you name the Mother of Red Hugh, she came from Scotland, believe it or not?

Can you tell me why Ulster was planted economically speaking?

You see Brickie, I am no liar and make no mistake about it, I know my history. Sadly some people look at a movie and base it on fact. Irish history is so complex, just like the Middle East. Again, I say to you that Daily Ireland is dead and gone but For The Time Being. So read the books I suggested to you.

Quotation:
'The first casualy of any war is the truth' American Philosopher

Your title sounds dubious given today's news. To say 'to give a man a good kickin is below my level of humanity'.

I reared greyhounds and I always let them out!!!!

I just feel that your comments are threatening and sad and so does my Jack Russell.

It is no sin to ask about Irish history - we are all pround of it.

I have some friends in Derry - serious in certain academia and believe me they wouldn't like if the greyhounds attacked me. I did enjoy that song some years ago 'Who let the dogs out?' so please return to your kennel and learn the word democracy and give Pedigree chum amiss, it is so British. Adams prefers Clonakilty Black Pudding!!!

I am proud of being a European and Irish.

My Jack Russell is now asking me 'Will common sense prevail Kevin T., when they sit down and talk about 'talks' again in November - the never ending story.....

Recently I read an Indymedia article about Brendan Hughes, Belfast, a veteran PIRA. Brendan now sees the Process as an illusion and a sell out out of the total Peace Process e,g, prematurely Policing Board. You see Man on the Dole, this is Indymedia and no-one knows who they are talking to and I would not threaten you with a kickin.....but believe me you would not give me one.

Irish men of all persuasions fought for a second precious thing beyond freedom but they both enthwine, it is called, in simple terms, The Right to have an Opinion so keep your threats and I hope you learn from what I am trying to tell you. Peace is what God granted to all men.

It's not often the closure of a newspaper is a victory for the freedom of the press but that's exactly what the end of Daily Ireland represents. Truth and honesty were never to be found in its pages during its publishing lifetime and, even on its death-bed, it kept on doing what it does best — lies, spin, and more lies.

The big bad Brits were blamed for refusing to provide a start-up grant and advertising. That's a bit like the IRA saying: "We lost the war because the British wouldn't buy us weapons or train and pay our volunteers, the bastards!"

What sort of self-respecting, radical outlet would be running to the Brits for money anyway? Wouldn't it want to stand on its own two feet? Wouldn't its independence be paramount? We've recently heard a lot from Sinn Fein about how it's following in the footsteps of Che Guevara. Now, imagine Che filling in the forms for the authorities to fund a revolutionary newspaper?

Only a tame, mainstream media organisation would be interested in government funding in the first place. And that's exactly what Daily Ireland was. How did it change the mainstream media agenda? What revolutionary campaigns did it fight? What stories did it ever break that rocked the establishment North or South? "Why playing Gaelic with the PSNI/RUC on the Malone Road is so-oh radical by Joe Brolly"? "Man eats mouse", was the final cutting-edge front page offering. Now, if Daily Ireland had survived another day, would the mouse eater have been unmasked as a Republican Sinn Fein or an SDLP member?

Daily Ireland portrayed itself as some powerless, victimised body. O'Muilleoir is a multi-millionaire and it was Daily Ireland practising McCarthyism, not suffering it. Time after time, the Provos' opponents — both of the constitutional nationalist and republican variety — were set up in stories. Never once did a Daily Ireland article challenge the Provo agenda. Even pre-1994 when the Irish News was truly a censorious SDLP rag, the odd story which presented the party in an unfavourable light would make it into print. But then the Provos have proved to be far better censors than their old enemies.

The columnists, to a man and woman, were 100% on-message too. Some were, membership-wise, outside the Sinn Fein stable. But they all were in absolute harmony with that party's agenda. There was not one dissenting voice, not one who wrote that just perhaps Gerry wasn't God. Shame on them!

The journalists who were hired were all B-team players with not one name of quality or substance among them. But that suited management. Anyone who has ever worked with O'Muilleoir knows he's a control freak and that his level of editorial intervention in run-of-the-mill stories is colossal. Independent-mindedness or strength of character wasn't a requirement. He wanted malleable journalists.

And, in the end, they weren't treated very well. One would expect that when a business, which prides itself on its left-wing, principled credentials, is closing, the process would be handled with sensitivity and adequate consultation and notice. Not a bit of it. Staff were given no warning. The announcement of job losses was brutal. The Sun, the Star, the News of the World or any right-wing rag couldn't have done it better. While staff might be heading for the dole queue, O'Muilleoir will still be driving his new top-of-the-range Audi. Christy Moore could sing 'Ordinary Man' in Teach Basil any day.

Daily Ireland didn't close because of a British plot. It would have received state advertisements had it secured the readership. It failed because nobody bought it and its management don't have the integrity to admit that. It was dull, tedious, unimaginative, and woefully laid-out. It didn't sell anything near 10,000 copies. It's not just the unionists and the Brits who can massage figures. Talk to the newsagents in West Belfast, look at the real circulation figures, and you'll see Daily Ireland's true sales were 2,000-3,000.

The Anderstonstown News' Group have shown their limitations. They can produce (with the help of substantial British government funding) a local bi-weekly paper full of advertisements, pictures of Granny Gormley's 80th and Eimear's 18th, and local tittle-tattle. But that's the height of it. It was their own delusions that they were more talented, more innovative, better writers, and had sharper business minds, that led them into the folly of Daily Ireland. They over-reached themselves.

Danny Morrison would love to be sitting on BBC Newsnight's couch on a Friday night discussing the arts with the literati but he's not up to it. He's written a few poorly selling-novels and a barely noticed play but he's going nowhere fast. He's not even Martin Lynch.

The Provos have long yearned for literary and journalistic success but it constantly evades them. The nearest them came to it was Frank Connolly but then he sort of blew it when he was filmed at Bogota airport with a false passport.

Anne Cadwallader has been a stalwart - remember how she shook Freddie Scap's hand at that sham 'press conference' when Provo propagandists needed to portray him as innocent and uncontaminated? But Anne hasn't managed to grace the pages of a quality national newspaper for almost 20 years now.

There hasn't been much for those who remain republicans to smile about in recent years. But Daily Ireland's closure offers a glimmer of light. It shows the Provos aren't infallible. Their finger isn't always on the pulse. They can read situations totally wrong.

They have thrived politically because they've had huge help from the British — through Blair and the intelligent services — and because the SDLP was so incompetent. Anti-Agreement republicans, with their disorganisation and bickering, have also greatly contributed to Provisional success. But Daily Ireland's failure shows the first chink in the armour.

In what turned out to be his last Daily Ireland column, Danny Morrison ridicules 'dissident' republicans. "I understand why dissident republicans bristle at being called 'dissidents'", he writes. "After all, it inescapably defines and anchors them as being dissident relative to a much larger successful republican organisation with which they disagree."

There is nothing dissident about 'dissident' republicans. All they do is remain true to traditional republican principles. But neither is there anything shameful in the term 'dissident' if it means that you are not a propaganda-parroting, spineless apparatchik, that you have spirit and back-bone and are capable of independent thought.

Danny Morrison makes much unjustified and some justified criticism of 'dissident' republicans. He derides them for not being able to "sustain a propaganda newspaper or magazine". Very true, Danny. Now, welcome to the club. And at least dissidents had the self-respect not to go running to the British government with a begging bowl.

"I hope the Village magazine is not nudged out of the market. Writers like Vincent Browne, Emma Browne, Frank Connolly, Colin Murphy and other's are the eyes and ears that keep us focused on reality time Ireland; the corruption, the social injustice, the political assasinations that ensure checks and balances in line democracy principles and the Rule of Law are possible......"

Corruption, injustice, eh?

Despite using recycled freebies from the Internet , COunterpunch and Indymedia stories, it's still turned in a loss of nearly ONE MILLION EUROS according to their company accounts - registered to 37 Coliemore Road - Vincent Browne's address. Why no story about that? I also heard from one students on the journalism course that he lectures on at the privately-run Griffith College (http://www.gcd.ie/index.jsp?pID=93&nID=108) that if they help out on the magazine that they'll be fast-tracked.

People who celbrate the demise of Daily Ireland are idiots simple as that. It was republican but those who think it was only a Provo loving rag simply did not read it. It was the only paper that gave good coverage to the anti war movement on an almost daily basis. I do not agree with everything it said but it was an anti establishement voice, and did have non SF voices in it. Those who celebrate its end are unionist or southern right wingers.

And those who wish for the end of Village are worse! The mag does not rob stories of the net, it says it clearly in each piece that they have come from countterpunch etc.

The left/republican/anti establishement media is being destoyed at the moment and no one seems to give a damn.

we will be left with nothing but the Indo and right wing brish/Irish tabloids